A party of Dutch Eritreans at Opera Zalencentrum in The Hague got out of hand on Saturday when other Dutch Eritreans stirred up. According to the municipality of The Hague, these were opponents of the current Eritrean regime. They pelted each other and the police with stones, police cars went up in flames and the conference center was damaged. Six questions about the riots and the Eritrean community in the Netherlands.
1 Which groups does the Dutch Eritrean community consist of?
About 25,000 Dutch Eritreans live in the Netherlands. This group consists of three generations who came to the Netherlands at different times, says Mek Ykeallo, who guides Eritrean newcomers to the Netherlands with his foundation. Due to the sensitivity of the subject, he formulates cautiously. His foundation, he says, gets along well with all groups. “The first group fled in the 1960s, at the beginning of the war. The second generation followed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, around Eritrea’s independence. The third group has been arriving since 2013.”
2 Why is there a battle between Eritrean groups in the Netherlands?
There are tensions between the three generations, Ykeallo sees, which arise from the country’s history. “The first two generations get along fine” – the two are often supporters of the current regime, which came to power after independence in 1991. “But with the last group it is more complicated. They have lived under the regime, had to do military service, are bitter and distance themselves from the old society. They distrust the older generations.” In addition, there is another generation gap: traditional family values are said to play less of a role among young people. Ykeallo notices the tensions among Dutch Eritreans “enormous”. “We see the frustrations and discussions and are the first to see which direction things are going.” He already saw the problems of last weekend coming. In recent years, there have also been more riots between groups, such as last year in Rijswijk and in 2020 in The Hague.
3 What is known about the Eritrean regime’s grip on the diaspora?
As early as 2012, research by de Volkskrant It is clear that the Eritrean consulate in the Netherlands is extorting people. They would have to pay a special tax; threats of violence were made against family members in Eritrea if anyone refused to pay. Consular services were also denied until taxes were paid. Cultural events would act as a front to collect money from the community.
4 Who organized the Eritrean party on Saturday?
The party was an initiative of the Federation of Eritrean Communities in the Netherlands. This group mainly represents Eritreans who fled to the Netherlands before the end of the war of independence and are now often supporters of the current regime. The federation, through former MP Myra Koomen (CDA), previously informed the municipality about the late New Year’s party in Opera. Koomen has been the mouthpiece and spokesperson for that federation for several months and has advocated more attention to safety at its meetings in The Hague.
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5 The municipality of The Hague quickly pointed to the Nhamedu Brigade as the cause of the unrest. What do we know about that group?
Little reliable information is known about the Nhamedu Brigade. It would be a loose association of opponents of the regime who often attend events of pro-government Eritreans. Since the announcement of Saturday’s party, the federation had been in contact with the municipality and the police about the risk of disturbances by this ‘brigade’.
Concrete signals were also shared with the municipality last week. According to Koomen, the contacts were intensive after that and the police even hired sworn interpreters to translate messages on social media as adequately as possible. The municipality and police then decided to impose additional security requirements on the organization and kept a platoon of riot police available in advance from the start of the party. Over the course of Saturday, more and more signals came in that there were large-scale calls to come to The Hague and the sender was also clear to the police: the messages came from the Brigade Nhamedu network.
As far as we know, all thirteen arrested suspects are Eritrean-Dutch and the course of events on the street points to a clear organizational structure that could be traced back to the communication channels of the Nhamedu Brigade. Further investigation and interrogations of the suspects must reveal whether this direct involvement applies to all counter-demonstrators present.
6 How is this going to continue?
On Sunday evening, the police and the judiciary formed a Large-Scale Investigation Team to identify more suspects. There is a lot of video footage of the riots. In addition, the local triangle of the mayor, police and the Public Prosecution Service will evaluate what exactly happened and, above all, what went wrong. The city council will discuss the issue on February 28. The House of Representatives is now calling for an investigation into the Nhamedu Brigade.
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